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Idea #14476: audio notification when bash command finishes

Written by andrewfenn the 16 Oct 08 at 22:21. Category: Usability. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Rationale
I want something that I can turn on which will give me an audio beep (or any sound I want) when the command has finished.

So if I type:
sudo apt-get install x y z
make
pbuilder update

or anything which takes years to complete, when I gets to

user@computer:~/home/user/$

It will beep to let me know. This would free me up to do other things while I am waiting and not having to see looking at the screen every 10 seconds to keep if a command finished.

-21
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Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #14476
Written by andrewfenn the 16 Oct 08 at 22:21.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #14476 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

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Eldmannen wrote on the 16 Oct 08 at 22:34
Install the tool 'beep'.
$ sudo apt-get install beep

Now you append "; beep" to whatever command you run.
$ sudo apt-get install x y z ; beep
$ make ; beep
$ pbuilder update ; beep

andrewfenn wrote on the 16 Oct 08 at 22:47
yeah... I was thinking more of a bash setting rather then an ugly hack..

jonwatson wrote on the 17 Oct 08 at 01:08
It's not an ugly hack. The whole philosophy of *NIX tools is to string together simple tools to create powerful results. Eldmannen's solution is a great example of that.

Endolith wrote on the 17 Oct 08 at 02:09
I'm sure you can add something to bash.rc to call the beep command.

Faryshta wrote on the 17 Oct 08 at 06:33
I don't like the idea, since I use the terminal so much it would be molest to me.

What I Eld... said is quite good idea which I will implement.

Auzy wrote on the 17 Oct 08 at 07:36
I actually think this is a great idea. Maybe the best way would be to prepend/append a command in front of any commands executed in shell? (so append echo \b or whatever works)

viraptor wrote on the 17 Oct 08 at 10:39
You can do it yourself - just add '^G', or '\007' to the beginning of your $PS1 variable.
Every time commandline is drawn, you'll get the beep, or whatever signal you set in the terminal.

Eldmannen wrote on the 17 Oct 08 at 22:46
If it beeps every single time you run a command, it will drive you nuts, because it will beep all the time.
Most commands execute instantly in 0 seconds, with the exception of apt-get.

Endolith wrote on the 18 Oct 08 at 01:40
It might not drive you nuts if you can set it to a click sound instead of a beep. Even a single beep drives me insane, but a clicking sound would be fine.

dotancohen wrote on the 19 Oct 08 at 11:43
Use Konsole (from KDE). It has this feature.

Auzy wrote on the 19 Oct 08 at 12:01
His not asking for it enabled by default anyway. He just wants a way. So not sure why people are voting this down. If support doesn't already exist, its not difficult to add to the code if its not (I know, because 2 years ago I modified the bash code on a script kiddie wargames servers so that people would have troubles deleting the annoying britney spears midi playing in the background. And I suck at coding, so I know its not hard).


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